Average wage falls to NIS 6,968 in August
By Zev Stub
Nov. 5, 2003
Jerusalem Post
The average gross salary continued to fall in August to
NIS 6,968, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said Wednesday.
The figure represents a 3% decline from July's NIS 7,188 level.
As is its tradition, The CBS excluded workers from Judea, Samaria,
and Gaza, as well as foreign workers, from the primary data.
When they are included, the average wage fell to NIS 6,864 in
August, from NIS 7,074 in July.
There were 2.316m. workers in the country in August, or 2.395m.
when workers from the territories and foreign workers are included.
The 66,300 legal foreign workers here earned a gross average
NIS 4,068 in August.
CBS noted that seasonal trends were skewed by health payments
cancelled for June, pay docked from strikers in may and June,
wage cuts in the public sector, and the tax reform. It also
noted an uneven distribution among the wage levels it studied.
Some 66.8% of Israelis earned more than the average salary.
Among this group, the average salary was NIS 9,271 during
August. Another 26.2% of the salary earned an average wage of
only NIS 1,971 a month.